This book, written by pioneering architects of original social theory in educational/linguistic fields as well as expert practitioners, systematically exposes the sociological commitments of mainstream ideas and theories in English for Academic Purposes (EAP), commitments which are very often not fully examined by the discipline, but nonetheless shape practitioners’ ideas and their praxis. The initial chapters outline what social theory is; the normative, critical, descriptive, social and generative purposes it serves; the scope and limits of social theory, and tracing the major historical...